#FridayisUpdateDay: June 28

#FridayisUpdateDay

OK so since this is is my first set of updates in a while, I'm just gonna throw a ton of information out here. Scroll down to see info for what movies you're interested in.

You'll notice there's a Stark-load of links throughout this blog. Each link will take you to another one of my posts about that subject. For example, if the post is about the film itself, the link will be in the title header of the film. If the post is about an actor or character, it will be in the casting section. Basically they're all in places that make sense, and if you want to know more about that, click the link.

As always, feel free to comment below with any questions, comments, or requests!

Wolverine (July 26, 2013)

- Set after "The Last Stand"
- Tweazer
- First footage
- Teaser Trailer/Poster
- Domestic Trailer/Poster
- Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Hiroyuki Sanada (Shingen Yashida), Hal Yamanouchi (Yashida), Tao Okamota (Mariko Yashida), Rila Fukushima (Yukio), Will Yun Lee (Kenuichio Harada/Silver Samurai), Brian Tee (Noburo Mori), Svetlana Khodchenkova (Viper), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey).

Kick-Ass 2 (August 16, 2013)

- New heroes and villains
- First trailer
- Second trailer
- Aaron Johnson (Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass), Chloe Grace Moretz (Mindy Macready/Hit Girl), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Chris D'Amico/The Red Mist/The Mother Fucker), Jim Carrey (Sal Bertolinni/Colonel Stars and Stripes), Donald Faison (Doctor Gravity), Robert Emms (Insect Man), Lindy Booth (Night Bitch), Daniel Kaluuya (Black Death), Clark Duke (Marty Eisenberg/Battle Guy), Augustus Prew (Todd Haynes/Ass-Kicker), Olga Kirkulina (Mother Russia), Andy Nyman (The Tumor), John Leguizamo (Javier)

Agents of SHIELD (September 2013)

- #CoulsonLives
- Will feature Coulson leading his own team of SHIELD Agents
- Will focus on non-superpowered people in the world of superhumans
- Watch the trailer
- Follow the blog
- Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May), Brett Dalton (Grant Ward), Chloe Bennet (Skye), Iain De Caestecker (Leo Fitz), Elizabeth Henstridge (Jenna Simmons), J. August Richards (unrevealed).

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (October 4, 2013)

- Featuring storylines from "A Dame to Kill For," "Just Another Saturday Night," "The Long Bad Night," and an original story.
- Jessica Alba (Nancy Callahan), Powers Boothe (Senator Roark), Josh Brolin (Dwight McCarthy), Jamie Chung (Miho), Marton Csokas (Damien Lord), Rosario Dawson (Gail), Julia Garner (Marcy), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Johnny), Eva Green (Ava Lord), Mickey Rourke (Marv), Bruce Willis (John Hartigan)

Thor: The Dark World (November 8, 2013)

- Takes place after "Thor" and "The Avengers"
- Will feature more focus on the nine realms.
- Watch the trailer
- 14 Questions and Observations about the trailer
- Learn about the prelude comic
- See some photos
- Chris Hemsworth (Thor Odinson), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Tom Hiddleston (Loki Laufeyson), Stellan Skarsgard (Dr. Erik Selvig), Idris Elba (Heimdall), Christopher Eccleston (Malekith the Accursed), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Algrim the Strong/Kurse), Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis), Ray Stevenson (Volstagg), Zachary Levi (Fandral), Tadanobu Asano (Hogun), Jaimie Alexander (Sif), Rene Russo (Frigga), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Clive Russell (Tyr), Chris O'Dowd (unspecified).

300: Rise of an Empire (March 7, 2014)

- Prequel to "300"

- Originally slated for a 2013 release but pushed back

- Will feature Xerxes' journey to becoming the god-king

- Sullivan Stapleton (Themistocles), Lena Headey (Quen Gorgo of Sparta), Eva Green (Artemisia), Rodrigo Santoro (Xerxes, King of Persia), Andrew Peavin (Daxos), Callan Mulvey (Scyllias), David Wenham (Dilios), Jack O'Connell (Calisto), Hans Matheson (Aeskylos), Andrew Tiernan (Ephialtes).

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)

- Takes place after "The Avengers" in modern day
- SHIELD and Black Widow play major roles
- Will feature the Trikselion, SHIELDs ground-based HQ
- See some concept art
- The blu-ray release will include a short film featuring Haylet Atwell as Peggy Carter after Cap's "death."
- Co-director Joe Russo says "It’s going to be much greater than any Marvel movie to date"
- Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Falcon), Colbie Smulders (Maria Hill), Frank Grillo (Brock Rumlow/Crossbones), Georges St-Pierre (Georges Batroc/Batroc the Leaper), Haylet Atwell (Peggy Carter), Toby Jones (Arnim Zola), Maximilano Hernandez (Agent Jasper Sitwell), Dominic Copper (Howard Stark), Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter/Agent 13).

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (May 2, 2014)

- Greatly expands Spider-Man's universe, including Oscorp and the Ravencroft Institute
- Mary Jane has been cut from the film, and will not appear until the third installment
- Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Jamie Foxx (Max Dillon/Electro), Dane DeHaan (Harry Osborn), Paul Giamatti (Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino), Sally Field (May Parker), Martin Sheen (Ben Parker), Chris Cooper (Norman Osborn), Felicity Jones (unspecified), B.J. Novak (unspecified).
- Release dates for the third and fourth films are June 10, 2016, and May 4, 2018, respectively.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (July 18, 2014)

- Bryan Singer returns as director, Matthew Vaughn stays on as writer
- Uses time travel to connect all previous X-Men films
- Will be reuniting many of the cast members of the original trilogy with cast members of the prequel First Class.
- Will feature Quicksilver, but supposedly not the same as the one in Avengers 2.
- James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart (Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X), Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven Darkholme/Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy/Beast), Halle Berry (Ororo Munroe/Storm), Anna Paquin (Marie/Rogue), Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat), Shawn Ashmore (Bobby Drake/Iceman), Daniel Cudmore (Peter Rasputin/Colossus), Fan Bingbing (Blink), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), Peter Dinklage (unrevealed).

Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)

- See some concept art
- Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Michael Rooker (Yondu), John C. Reilly (Rhomann Dey, leader of Nova Corps), Lee Pace (unspecified villain), Karen Gillan (unspecified villain), Glenn Close (member of Nova Corps), Beicio del Toro (unrevealed).

Fantastic Four (March 6, 2015)

- Reboot of the 2005 and 2007 films
- Will share continuity with the X-Men films

The Avengers 2 (May 1, 2015)

- Will feature Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, but supposedly not the same Quicksilver from X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Thanos will not be the main villain
- Loki will not be involved
- Rumors suggest Black Panther will be involved

Ant-Man (November 6, 2015)

- Will start Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- See some stills from the test footage
- Rumors suggest Arnie Hammer may be up for the lead role, but the actor and Edgar Wright, the director, both deny this
- Edgar Wright tweeted that he directed a scene from a movie other than his movie "The World's End." A lot of people suspect that it's a post-credits scene for another MCU movie, and since it wasn't in Iron Man 3, I hope that it shows up in Thor: The Dark World.

Unrevealed future MCU films

- May 6th.2016
- July 8th, 2016
- May 5th, 2017
- Disney announced release dates for films without revealing what the films are.
- Speculations include new characters like Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Luke Cage/Heroes for Hire, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, or a sequel to an existing movie, like The Incredible Hulk
- Rumors suggest that Dr. Strange will replace Tony Stark/Iron Man as the "hub" character in Phase 3

Expanding the DC Cinematic Universe

- Man of Steel is the beginning of a shared film universe of the DC comics characters, similar to Marvel's Avengers
- A prelude comic to Man of Steel provides proof that Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, exists and is present on Earth during the time of Man of Steel
- References to other chracters in Man of Steel include "LexCorp" being visible multiple times, as well as the "Wayne Enterprises" logo appearing, and "Blaze Comics," a reference to BoosterGold.
- Green Lantern may enter into the DCU with the recent film not officially existing in the same continuity, but still serving the purpose of introducing the character to film audiences.
- Warner Bros. is fast tracking a sequel to Man of Steel to come out as early as next year
- Superman's presence is said to "cause" other heroes to step forward, leading to the Justice League movie, which some report will come as soon as 2015

Zoe Saldana confirmed for Guardians of the Galaxy

So, within the last few days, it has been confirmed that Zoe Saldana will play Gamora in Marvel's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm not going to bother posting much else about it, because you can all type words into Google, but to hear what Zoe herself has to say, click here.

Also, if you haven't read my posts about updates on GOTG, check them out here, here, and here.

Coulson Lives, and so does this blog

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I've just been swamped with a ton of stuff lately. School, work, and personal life have all been clashing, and sleep has been scarce. Not quite out of the woods yet, but I've got enough time to blog a bit, so here we go.

Updates everywhere! Beware, lots of links

IRON MAN 3: (May 3, 2013)
So many updates, but unless you're under a rock, you should have seen most of it.
12 days, 2 hours, 17 minutes, 40 seconds

MAN OF STEEL: (June 14, 2013)
Probably some new info I should be aware of, but Iron Man 3 and Marvel/MCU has my focus right now.

WOLVERINE: (July 26, 2013)
New photos released http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176309-high-quality-photos-from-the-wolverine-released

AGENTS OF SHIELD: (Fall 2013)
Clark Gregg talks about Coulsons return. Not much info, but it's fun because it's Clark Gregg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rmuz4JaoPI

THOR: THE DARK WORLD: (November 8, 2013)
First teaser poster released

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (April 4, 2014)
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176311-will-a-peggy-carter-short-film-premiere-at-comic-con

And here's this terribly-low-quality photo of the new suit being used in the new film, based on the "Commander Rogers" suit from the comics.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2: (May 2, 2014)
New photos released, including Jamie Foxx as Electro (which looks like utter crap) and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy (who looks significantly better than crap) http://www.superherohype.com/gallery/spider-man/the-amazing-spider-man-2/the-amazing-spider-man-2-set-photos

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: (August 1, 2014)
Some interesting reading here. http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176307-james-gunn-talks-guardians-of-the-galaxy

Michael Rooker has been cast as Yondu, an alien Mystic. Until this point, it appeared the film would be taking material only from the 2008 team, but this character is from the original incarnation.

ANT-MAN: (November 6, 2015)
Recently Edgar Wright released a tweet saying that besides his own film, he has directed one scene in one other film coming out this summer, asking his followers to guess which. The prevailing theory is that he filmed a post-credits scene for Iron Man 3, so we may see Ant-Man make his debut pretty soon.

"edgarwright ‏@edgarwright

8 Apr

Aside from 'The World's End', I directed one shot in another summer movie. But which? #IProbablyWillNotTell"

HEROES: (TBA)

OK, so if you never watched "Heroes," it was this amazing show about super-powered individuals living in the real world. I recommend it (I think it's on Netflix), but be warned, the mythology is very complex and intricate, so it's a lot to keep track of. But I love it. I own the whole series, because I was stupid and didn't start watching until it cancelled after four season. But now, it may be coming back!
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176269-nbcs-heroes-could-come-back

Upcoming MCU characters

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been swamped all week, and that's not likely to slow soon, so kind of a weak post today. I wanted to take some time to just think about some of the new characters that will be joining the MCU in the near future. Who are you most looking forward to seeing in the movies? Personally I'm most interested in seeing how badass they can make Falcon, how relevant they will make Batroc the Leaper, how relatable they will make the Guardians of the Galaxy, what the history between Black Widow and Winter Soldier will be like, and how Crossbones will fit in to Red Skull. Also, Ant-Man.

IM3: (20 days, 2 hours, 32 minutes, 53 seconds)
Alrich Killian, co-creator of Extremis virus and founder of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM).
Dr. Maya Hansen, co-creator of the Extremis virus
Ellen Brandt, agent of AIM, and wife of Man-Thing
Eric Savin/Coldblood, villainous cyborg
The Mandarin, an international terrorist
Jack Taggert/Firepower, an armored supervillain

Thor: TDW
Malekith the Accursed, leader of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim
Algrim the Strong/Kurse, a Dark Elf
Tyr, another partial-brother of Thor

CA:TWS
The Winter Soldier, technically still Bucky Barnes, but a completely different character, now a brainwashed assassin
Sam Wilson/Falcon
Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, a villain who, in the comics, was often employed by the Red Skull, and assassinated Captain America.
Georges Batroc/Batroc the Leaper, a French villain and master of the French kick-boxing "savate."
Alexander Pierce, a senior member of SHIELD
Agent 13/Sharon Carter, relative to Peggy Carter and love interest to Steve

GOTG:
Star-Lord
Drax the Destroyer
Groot
Rocket Raccoon
Gamora

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD (TV Series)
Melinda May
Grant Ward
Skye
Leo Fitz
Jemma Simmons

Ant-Man and, most probably, the Wasp

Dr. Strange

Are you ready for Phase 2?

Photos, photos, photos (Phase 2 concept art/preview)

So, I have a lot of photos that have come out in the last couple days.

At least some of them were released as part of the huge Avengers Phase 1 box set as part of the "Phase 2 Preview," but since I don't have that I'm not totally sure if they all are or not. Basically a lot of concept art drawings for upcoming films. Some of them I'm not even certain what films they are supposed to be attached to, so some won't have any helpful descriptions, sorry.

Keep in mind that concept art is no guarantee of how something will look in the final film, just used as, well, a concept.

Enjoy.

(Iron Man 3 Countdown: 30 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes, 50 seconds)

PHASE 2:

IRON MAN 3

Pew! Pew! Pew!

THOR: THE DARK WORLD

From Thor: The Dark World. Looks like Jane Foster makes it to Asgard. Also, seems as Thor is sporting golden armor now, suggesting he finally becomes King. I'm more interested by the face of the guy to the right of Natalie Portman, though. Very sophisticated.

Looks like some bad stuff happens in Asgard. Who would have guessed?

CAPTAIN AMERICA:
THE WINTER SOLDIER

Winter Soldier. And Captain America. Looks pretty awesome.

"Taxi!"

Winter Soldier. A.K.A. Bucky 2.0

Falcon

Honestly I'm more excited to see Falcon than Cap. Nothing against Cap, just interested in how they do Falcon.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Is that the Cantina Band playing for the Guardians of the Galaxy?

If I had to guess, I would guess that this is Star-Lord's ship. Cleverly named "Ship."

Say "hello" to my little friend! And...his...little friend.

MYSTERY PHOTOS

Now these pics are the ones I'm not sure what they connect to. 

Feel free to tell me, or just spout ideas.

It's a...uh....plane...spaceship....thing....

So this looks pretty Thor-esque to me, but it might be GOTG related. So, it's in the mystery pile.

The little spherical thing reminds me of Iron Man 2, but I'm pretty clueless about this.

PHASE 3:

From the Ant-Man test footage. All CGI, no actor yet.

More Ant-Man

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." - Loki. He hasn't met this Ant yet.

OK, let's talk about Guardians of the Galaxy

First, let's start with the stuff that everybody should know by this point.

So, Marvel is releasing a film late next year (August 1, 2014 to be precise) called "Guardians of the Galaxy" and named after a superhero team from the comics. Well, actually, named after the second superhero team with that name in the comics. This was announced during comic-con and so far most of what we have is the following concept art, showing (from left to right): Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, and Gamora.

Now, if you want details on the characters, look them up on wikipedia. But basically, Drax is a former human whose family was destroyed by Thanos (you know, Thanos, the purple guy that showed up during the credits of The Avengers), so Arthur Douglas did XY and Z to gain super-everything and became the green guy, D the D. Groot is a giant, sentient tree. So, exactly what he looks like in the picture. Star-Lord (Peter Quill) is half-human and half-alien (giggity) and has super-neat guns and a super-neat suit and is super-tactical, so he's an intergalactic policeman dude. Right. (That would be the team leader). Rocket raccoon is a talking raccoon that can shoot guns and fly aircraft. And Gamora is the adopted daughter of Thanos (there's that name again) who spends most of her time (and super-powers, including a healing factor) fighting her father.

So, based on that info, we can pretty much assume that the villain for the film will be Thanos. What we don't know is how much company Thanos is going to have. Loki? The Chitauri? The Other? (That's the creepy alien dude from The Avengers that was having magic meetings with Loki). Some new crew of evils? Kree/Skrull people? That I can't say.

There's also a big list of "maybes" for characters that might be in the film. The biggest on I'll save for later, but others include some Galactus heralds like Nova or Silver Surfer, which leads me to ask about the big purple guy himself, Adam Warlock, Thor, and Doctor Strange. Of course the Kree/Skrull element begs questions about Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) which then leads to Ms. Marvel. And others.

As far as storylines go, pardon the pun but the sky is the limit. Most likely, since we've already seen the Infinity Gauntlet in the Thor film (did you miss it? It was shown brienfly in Odin's vault as the Frost Giants were breaking in), it will involve Thanos gathering Infinity Stones and the good ol' guardians trying to story him. Or something else, who knows? Oh, but that reminds me, second spoiler coming at the end of this post.

Now about casting. So far, only two roles have been cast for sure. Chris Pratt, who I've never seen in anything but apparently is becoming somewhat famous, has been cast as Star-Lord. Meanwhile, wrestler/MMA fighter/actor Dave Bautista/Batista has been cast as Drax the Destroyer, which I guess makes sense. Other rumors for roles include Adrianne Palicki for Gamora, and both Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler reportedly in talks to do a voice, presumably for either Groot or Rocket Raccoon. Beyond that, there's a lot of speculation and fan fantasies.

So, besides the spoilers to come below, if you haven't been keeping tabs on GOTG info, that's about all we know at this point. Obviously, its still a ways off, and a lot could change in that time. We're still not even sure where in the continuity the film will fall. Most likely post-Avengers, but who knows? By then, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Cap 2 will already be out, and the SHIELD show will have run a full season.

Finally, because I don't want this blog to lose its usual concept of Beauty-is-a-Geek, here's a Gamora cosplay for you!

Before I get to the spoilers, I request comments! I'll set up a buffer between the spoilers and the end of the article so you can comment safely without accidentally reading the spoilers. But all this info took a lot of time to gather and present to you so nicely! So the least you could do (well, the least you could do after nothing, looking at it, staring to read it, and finishing read it) is to leave a comment. Alright, now on to spoilers!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

_______________________________________________________________

THE FOLLOWING TEXT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE SAID SPOILERS, STOP READING THIS ARTICLE NOW! BUT PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT! I'LL LEAVE A BUFFER ZONE BETWEEN THE SPOILERS AND THE END OF THE ARTICLE.

SPOILER NUMBER 1

Word is that Iron Man/Tony Stark is set to appear in the GOTG film, most likely to help draw a bigger crowd since not many people know who they are. But its been revealed that Stark will have a new "Deep Space" suit in Iron Man 3, and will probably be taking off at the end of the film to help out the guardians.

SPOILER NUMBER 2

The legitimacy of this next spoiler is still up in the air, but there's some thought that the direction of the MCU in the next several years is leading to films about Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, which is also why Marvel is delaying any Hulk sequels for a while. How they go about this is all speculation: it could either be used as an end to the MCU after 10 years or so, or could just close one chapter while the rest continues on, or maybe not even have a definitive end of any kind, and just be another story they tell. Who knows. But be on the lookout for clues to this being true. Like an MCU version of the Illuminati.

END OF SPOILERS. NOW TO SET A BUFFER ZONE.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

LEAVE A COMMENT!